Brendan Coyle
Born: 1963-12-02 in Corby, Northamptonshire, England, UK
Known For: Acting
Biography
Brendan Coyle (born 2 December 1962) is a British-Irish actor. He won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for The Weir in 1999. He also played Nicholas Higgins in the miniseries North & South, Robert Timmins in the first three series of Lark Rise to Candleford, and more recently Mr Bates, the valet, in Downton Abbey, which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Brendan Coyle was born David Coyle in Corby, Northamptonshire, on 2 December 1962, the son of a Patrick B Coyle and Bedelia M B Anderson. He has an older brother named Shaun Due to his British birth and Irish heritage, he holds both British and Irish citizenship. He is the great-nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby. He studied drama in Dublin in 1981 and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 1983. Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC. From 2008 he played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle, and it won him nominations for a BAFTA and IFTA as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Awards as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2012. He also won three Screen Actors Guild Awards 2013–16. Coyle also played the character of Terry Starling in the short-lived Sky comedy series Starlings.
Filmography
2025
- Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale as John Bates
- Toxic Town as Roy Thomas
2024
- Finders Keepers as Denys Elland
2022
- Downton Abbey: A New Era as John Bates
- Riches as Gideon
2019
- Downton Abbey as John Bates
2018
- Mary Queen of Scots as Earl of Lennox
- Requiem as Stephen Kendrick
2016
- Me Before You as Bernard Clark
- Unless
- Saving Lives at Sea as Self - Narrator
2015
- 12 Monkeys as Benjamin Kalman
- A Merry Murdoch Christmas as Rankin
- Spotless as Nelson Clay
2014
- Noble as Gerry Shaw
2010
- Downton Abbey as John Bates
2009
- Perrier's Bounty as Jerome
2008
- Lark Rise to Candleford as Robert Timmins
2007
- Damage as Aidan Cahill
- Wedding Belles as Father Henry
- The Mark of Cain as Davey Gulliver
- True Dare Kiss as Kaz Sweeney
2006
- Offside as Duncan Miller
- Perfect Parents as Ed
- Soundproof as DI Dave Cox
2005
- The Jacket as Damon
- Omagh as Detective Sergeant John White
- Jericho as Christie
- The Ghost Squad
2004
- Shameless as Father Polish
- North & South as Nicholas Higgins
2003
- Blue Murder as Derek Jowell
- The Commander
2002
2001
- Waking the Dead as Martin Corgan
- The Bombmaker as George McEvoy
- Conspiracy as Heinrich Müller
- Rebel Heart as Michael Collins
- Mapmaker as Robert Bates
1999
- I Could Read the Sky as Francie
1998
- The General as UVF Leader
- Soft Sand, Blue Sea as Gerry
1997
- Tomorrow Never Dies as HMS Bedford Leading Seaman
- The Last Bus Home as Steve Burkett
1996
1995
- Dangerfield
- The Glass Virgin as Manuel Mendoza
1992
- Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robbery as Det. Sgt. Benwell
1991
- Prime Suspect as DCS Mitchell